OpenAI has denied allegations by Asian News International (ANI) which accused the tech company of unauthorized content extraction for its AI model ChatGPT.
In a 31-page court filing, OpenAI stated they did not use Indian media content to train ChatGPT, rather they relied on publicly available data. Aside from ANI, other major Indian media houses, including NDTV (owned by Gautam Adani), Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, and Network18 Media & Investments Limited (owned by Ambani), have joined the case, demanding accountability for AI-generated content usage.
READ: AI and the media: Transforming content, distribution, and editorial leadership (December 10, 2024)
The Delhi high court said on Tuesday that it will begin detailed hearings on Feb. 21, to address ANI media’s copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI.
OpenAI has been mired in legal controversy for a long time when it comes to copyrighted content. In January 2024, The New York Times took legal action against OpenAI, filing a lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit stems from concerns that OpenAI used its content without permission to train its AI models, particularly GPT-3 and GPT-4.
NYT claims that OpenAI scraped articles from its website without compensating the publication or obtaining proper licensing, violating its copyright. ChatGPT has also been skirting the copyright issue for a while now, with complaints from creatives like authors, musicians, and news organisations falling on seemingly deaf ears.
ANI is seeking $230,000 in damages, marking the first major legal hurdle for OpenAI in India, its second-largest market. The tech giant previously spent $10 million fighting such claims worldwide.
READ: OpenAI celebrates 12 Days of “Shipmas”: Highlights from week 1 (December 13, 2024)
OpenAI has faced several legal challenges and issues regarding copyright. One major issue involves the privacy and data usage of its language models, which are trained on large datasets that may include publicly available or copyrighted material. This raises concerns over privacy violations and intellectual property rights, especially regarding whether the data used for training was obtained with proper consent.
Additionally, there are questions about the ownership of content generated by OpenAI’s models. If an AI produces a work based on copyrighted data, it is tricky to determine who owns the rights—whether it’s OpenAI, the user who prompted the AI, or the creators of the original data.